Biking Fort Clatsop In Seaside, Oregon

Turn left after leaving the visitor bureau and head East along Broadway. At the For way stop sign head (north) left along Wahanna Rd until you reach the Wahanna/Lewis & Clark Rd junction.

Turn right here and climb the hill to the crest where you can get great views of the ocean.

Bear right

Continue straight ahead to Lewis & Clark Road

Turn left

Turn Left

Step into the Fort Clatsop replica, at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, and you'll get a real sense of what the Corps of Discovery experienced more than 200 years ago. It looks smells and feels pretty much the same. In peak visitor season, rangers in buckskins, offer demonstrations such as muzzle loading and shooting, hide tanning and candle making.They're patient, friendly and used to lots of questions about the Corps. Check out the historic canoe landing and consider adding a short walk on one of the nearby trails.

If it starts to rain, take a break inside the Visitor Center, which features excellent films, bookstore with children's books and games and other displays. The Lewis and Clark National Historical Park also hots a number of free lectures and other special events throughout the year.

“Ocean in view! O! the joy.”

When Capt. William Clark wrote these words in his journal on November 7, 1805, he was not standing at the Pacific Ocean but the Columbia River estuary. It would be another couple of weeks before he and Capt. Meriwether Lewis would stand at what they had “been so long anxious to see.” By then they had traveled more than 4,000 miles across the North American continent with a contingent of 31 explorers, mostly U.S. Army enlisted men, known as the Corps of Discovery.

The expedition was President Thomas Jefferson’s idea. He had for years been fascinated by the vast and virtually unknown territory west of the Mississippi River, and in June 1803 he announced plans to send an exploratory party overland to the Pacific. He had chosen Lewis to head it, and Lewis selected Clark, his friend and former commanding officer to share the responsibilities. They were to explore the Missouri River to its source, then establish the most direct water route to the Pacific, making scientific and geographic observations along the way. They were also to learn what they could of Indian tribes they encountered and impress them with the technology and authority of the United States.

Fort Clatsop was the winter encampment for the Corps of discovery from December 1805 to March 1806.

Once the Corps of Discovery built Fort Clatsop, they turned their attention to exploring the land nearby. While hunting and gathering food, making salt and trading with Clatsop, Chinook and Tillamook Indians were all part of the Corps’ mission, members also turned to the important work of documenting the natural world around them.

Some of their travels took them southwest to the area’s bounteous beaches, including what are now Sunset Beach and Seaside. While the Corps forged its way through deep woods, muddy bogs and windswept beaches, a 6.5-mile trail now runs much of the same forest, fields and dunes that the Corps traveled.

The Fort To Sea Trail wends its way through the woods south of Fort Clatsop to Sunset Beach on the Pacific Ocean, covering land that once was home to the Clatsop Indians who helped the Corps.

The explorers started up the Missouri River from near St. Louis on May 14, 1804. After a tedious journey of five months, they wintered at Fort Mandan, which they built near the Mandan Indian villages 1,600 miles up the Missouri. Here they acquired the interpreting services of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader, and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, accompanied by their infant son, Jean Baptiste.

In April 1805 the Corps of Discovery left Fort Mandan and followed the Missouri and its upper branches into an unknown world. Along the Lemhi River, in what is now Idaho, Sacagawea’s people provided horses and a guide for the grueling trip over the Continental Divide. In November 1805, after some 600 miles of water travel down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, they finally sighted the Pacific.

Within 10 days of arriving on the coast, Lewis and Clark decided to leave their storm–bound camp on the north shore and cross the river, where elk were reported to be plentiful. Lewis, with a small party, scouted ahead and found a “most eligible” site for winter quarters. On December 10, 1805, the men began to build a fort about two miles up the Netul River (now Lewis and Clark River). By Christmas Day they were under shelter. They named the fort for the friendly local Indian tribe, the Clatsop. It would be their home for the next three months.

Open

Mid-June - Labor Day 9:00am - 6:00pm

After Labor Day - Mid-June 9:00am - 5:00pm
Phone 503-861-2471 ext. 214
Location 92343 Fort Clatsop Road, Astoria, Oregon 97103

Closures Closed Christmas Day

Exhibits Exhibit Hall, Theaters (two movies: “Clatsop Winter Story” 22 minutes and “Confluence of Time and Courage” 34 minutes)

Available Facilities Information Desk, Restrooms, Pay Phone, Drinking Fountain, Rotating Displays and Exhibits, and a new Bookstore.

No food or beverages available for purchase

To reach the wooded site that would become Fort Clatsop, the Corps paddled up the Netul River past lush riverbanks and tall evergreens teaming with wildlife, such as playful river otters and majestic bald eagles.

Now the river is named after Lewis and Clark, but Netul Landing pays homage to the former name and is an excellent place to launch your kayak or canoe for a paddle trip.

The launch is part of the Lewis and Clark Columbia River Water Trail, a 146-mile stretch of water that follows the explorers' route on the Lower Columbia River from Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean, near Ilwaco, Wash.

Netul Landing also marks one end of the new Lewis and Clark River Trail. The Lewis and Clark River Trail is a gentle, 1.5-mile meander along the river, taking in many of the same sights that the expedition members did. You can park your car in the nearby parking areas and walk to the Visitor Center at Fort Clatsop to continue your own journey into local history, or connect up with the Fort to Sea trail and trace the Corps’ trip to Sunset Beach.

Go straight ahead to Lewis & Clark Road

Turn right and return to Seaside Visitor Bureau following outbound route.

Bicycle friendly convenience store